News

Following several days of deliberations in the Apple vs. Samsung trial, the jury reached verdicts on a number of design and utility patent infringement allegations brought against Samsung by Apple, finding numerous violations by Samsung. The jury also found that Apple possessed certain trade dress rights in the iPhone—namely, that certain elements of iPhone designs were famous and protectable—and were diluted by some of Samsung’s products. Other asserted iPhone and iPad trade dress rights were not found to be famous or protectable.

The jury was specifically asked to determine whether Samsung had infringed a number of different Apple patents across a wide collection of different Samsung devices, and given a questionnaire to answer “yes” or “no” for each Apple patent on each Samsung device. While not every Samsung device was found to have infringed all of Apple’s patents, multiple Samsung devices were found to be infringing on one or more patents. Moreover, a number of Samsung’s infringements were determined to be willful—not accidental—subjecting the company to higher penalties. The jury also said that Samsung had failed to demonstrate that Apple’s patents were invalid, a possible defense, and found that Apple had not violated a number of Samsung patents, contrary to claims by Samsung.

Reports varied on whether Apple had also prevailed on an antitrust claim against Samsung. According to an initial report by CNET, the jury found that Samsung had unlawfully monopolized markets related to the UMTS standard, while finding that Apple had not violated antitrust laws on UMTS.

Although an early report suggested that Samsung would be liable for roughly $2.5-billion in damages for infringements in various products, the judge clarified that total damages assessed against Samsung were in the $1.05-billion range, and due to the large number of infringing Samsung products, the numbers apparently had to be re-checked after the verdict was read. As Apple was not found responsible for any violations of Samsung patents, no damages were assessed against the Cupertino company. [via CNET]

In addition to seeking damages for these violations, Apple has attempted to block sales of allegedly infringing Samsung devices, a decision that is being left to the judge in this case. Late Apple CEO Steve Jobs famously noted that the company had sought patent protection for all of the inventions embodied in the iPhone, and patents have subsequently been granted on numerous aspects of the iPhone, as well as later devices such as the iPod touch and iPad. Current Apple CEO Tim Cook has signaled that the company will in some cases license patents, while in other cases reserving the inventions to Apple for its own products, and suing companies that infringe.

Following the verdict, Apple’s and Samsung’s public relations teams each issued statements, with Apple praising the jury for listening to a story it was “thrilled” to “finally” tell regarding Samsung’s copying of Apple’s products, and Samsung suggesting that the “verdict should not be viewed as a win for Apple, but as a loss for the American consumer,” as Apple had patented obvious concepts that “will lead to fewer choices, less innovation, and potentially higher prices.”

Comments

1

It seams that Apple it is GOOD. I am a Samsung customer but after this incident, I will change my mobiles. I understand the fight it is hard but you have to fight with white weapons.

Posted by koko in East Amherst, NY, USA on August 27, 2012 at 2:32 AM (CDT)

1

@1: Huh? Apple has been found guilty of violating both Motorola and Samsung’s patents multiple times as well. This was just a particularly biased (and likely dumb as a box of rocks) jury for such a lopsided judgment.

In addition to the out and out broken state of the tech patent matters, the crux of the stupidity of this judgment is that Samsung did nothing that Apple themselves didn’t do when they made they made the iPhone in the first place (or the Mac, or the iPod, or the iPad): look at the market, try to avoid what isn’t working and incorporate what’s doing best and try to improve on it. *That* IS Apple’s entire business model, always has been, they’ve “innovated” about as much as my butt in the grand scheme of things. Yet, here they are with the dream jury being found as bastions of originality and horribly violated by that “evil” Samsung, a corporation that Apple could not even exist without since they make the bulk of the chips in Apple’s devices. It boggles my mind.

Posted by Code Monkey in East Amherst, NY, USA on August 27, 2012 at 2:31 PM (CDT)

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Ah yes, the ever so stupid everyone-else-but-me reply I knew would be here…like clockwork!
They have to be “stupid” don’t they? I mean, you did sit in the courtroom to hear all the evidence as well as attend law school to get your patent-law expertise, right?
Even Google told Samsung via emails to quit it.

“The e-mails included an internal 2010 Samsung message describing how Google asked it to change the design of its products to look less like Apple’s.”

Oye, you are as predictable as humidity in Florida…

PS-captcha’s are still miserable!

Posted by sb in East Amherst, NY, USA on August 27, 2012 at 4:58 PM (CDT)

1

Pot, meet kettle.

sb, I realize you are about as objective as a southern baptist about same sex marriage when it comes to Apple, but, come on, facts are facts. Just last month Apple was found guilty of violating Samsung’s patents, and it’s hardly the first time either (and, yes, Samsung has been found guilty of violating Apple’s patents). It’s a global game of rolling the dice as they pit their legal teams against one another in every single market that is willing to let them play this ridiculous game. Neither company is due squat as neither company has actually copied anything you can patent with 100% certainty. They just use their vagued up patents (overlapping with *hundreds* of other patents held by dozens of other companies) and hope they get the right jury and a prize comes out.

Come up for air, your brain will thank you.

Posted by Code Monkey in East Amherst, NY, USA on August 27, 2012 at 7:32 PM (CDT)

1

Well, Code Monkey, you’re what we call a troll. Honestly since your arguments are so transparent I’d say that the hopes you have of convincing anybody you are right is unlikely to work out.

But hey, keep on wasting your time. There are a bunch of other Mac and iPhone blogs you can work your ‘magic’ on btw.

Posted by Fanfoot in East Amherst, NY, USA on August 28, 2012 at 2:13 AM (CDT)

1

@5: Troll? I’ve been on her for more than *8* years answering questions on the forums. So call me a troll, I honestly don’t care as you couldn’t be more wrong.

Point is, Apple is merely abusing a broken patent system (as isn’t Samsung, Motorola, Microsoft, et al). The sort of things Apple is suing over you weren’t even allowed to patent until relatively recently, and you still can’t patent in many fields. What Apple has patented is the equivalent of saying you own lens flares in movie making or moving the camera with the right mouse button in a FPS game. It is the opposite of defending innovation as it’s using the patent system and courts to stifle innovation and crush the competition with your bank account instead of making better products.

Plenty see this for what it is, so again, I don’t need your ignorant validation.

Posted by Code Monkey in East Amherst, NY, USA on August 28, 2012 at 1:18 PM (CDT)

1

If it wasn’t a matter of billions it would be funny. I don’t understand why so much competition, I guess that’s how the big fish do business. We should be grateful though because their war leads to innovation and we all benefit :)
A real pattern has been made during the last few Apple launches - check this article - - on ComputerWorld and you’ll see it’s the same every single launch. And it’s not in Apple’s favor.

Posted by Koleen in East Amherst, NY, USA on September 6, 2012 at 10:15 AM (CDT)